Automation Anxiety

For years, engineering and IT degrees have been seen as a gateway to professional success. Then came generative AI, the spectre of job loss and the waking up to reality

- Nabodita Ganguly

Growing up, the cramped one-room apartment where she lived with her parents and that doubled as a kitchen was what Pooja called home. The building had just one bathroom, shared by nearly 70 people.

Studying meant crawling under the bed, the only quiet place she could find. Here, in the dim light, she made drawings for her electrical engineering coursework.

“That was the only place where I got peace,” the 41-year-old techie recalls.

In 2005, Pooja received her diploma. Her first job was as a coder in Gurgaon, with a salary of Rs 7,056 a month. Step by step, she climbed the corporate ladder. Today, she works at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and earns Rs 35 lakh a year.

The IT sector in India has for decades been the golden ticket for millions like Pooja, a sure-shot entry to the country's middle class.

“This surge in employment has provided numerous high-skilled job opportunities, contributing to the rapid growth of India's middle class,” says Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder of staffing firm TeamLease.

Several factors were behind the IT boom. The economic liberalisation of 1991 opened India to global markets, attracting multinational tech giants such as Intel, Cisco, Accenture and Microsoft, which set up operations in India. Amid global apprehension over the ‘Y2K bug’ at the turn of the millennium, companies in the US and Europe sought out skilled software engineers in India to mitigate the technical glitch. It was a watershed moment for the sector.

Over the next two decades, the industry’s revenue vaulted from $5.9bn in 2001 to an estimated $245bn in 2023. The expansion led to direct employment in the sector crossing 5mn a couple of years ago, according to Chakraborty.

Disruption is Brewing